Environmental Health Coalition (EHC)

Grant Amount: $100,000
Contact: Diane Takvorian, Executive Director

401 Mile of Cars Way, Suite 310
National City, CA 91950-6608
Telephone: (619) 474-0220
Fax: (619) 474-1210
E-mail: ehc@environmentalhealth.org
Web address: www.environmentalhealth.org

EHC is a base building group founded in 1980 that organizes in communities in San Diego, CA and Tijuana, Mexico. EHC works with a range of constituencies, including low-income people of color and middle class white communities, all trying to protect themselves from exposure to toxic substances in their neighborhoods. EHC members learn leadership skills and gain political education that enable them to become actively engaged citizens working on the public policies that impact their lives. The group is a leader in the use of GIS (Geographic Information Systems) mapping to demonstrate the impact of multiple toxic pollutants on communities. EHC is an advocate of the Precautionary Principle and is involved in toxics reduction efforts at the national level. Locally, EHC is working with other groups on a comprehensive regional economic development strategy.


Florida Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (FL ACORN)

Grant Amount: $40,000
Contact: Stephanie Porta

120 East Colonial Drive
Orlando, FL 32801
Telephone: 407-423-9832
E-mail: sporta@acorn.org
Web Address: www.acorn.org

Florida ACORN is a member of the national grassroots ACORN network. It is a membership-based organization with chapters across the state that builds power for low-income people of color through organizing and advocacy. It works on issues ranging from discrimination, education, housing, and immigrant rights to jobs, predatory lending, and safe streets. ACORN’s activism model is based on local membership and leadership from neighborhood chapters. Florida ACORN was one of the main organizations behind the campaign to increase the minimum wage in Florida, which raised the incomes of over 800,000 workers.


Florida Immigrant Coalition (FLIC)

Grant Amount: $30,000
Contact: Maria Rodriquez, Director

8325 NE Second Avenue, Suite 206
Miami, FL 33138
Telephone: (305) 571-7254, Fax: 305-576-6273
E-mail: mrodriguez@fiacfla.org
Web address: http://www.fiacfla.org

Originally started in 1998 by advocates of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center in Miami, FLIC was incorporated in 2004 into a grassroots, membership-based coalition with a commitment to developing statewide capacity. It has since become an active, agile and respected progressive force bringing together over 60 immigrant-led organizations and their allies in Florida. In 2006 FLIC successfully convinced Florida legislators, including the two Senators, to support a comprehensive approach to immigration reform and injected Florida into the national immigration rights movement.


Funders Network on Trade and Globalization (FNTG)

Grant Amount: $20,000
Contact: Mark Randazzo, Executive Director

3401 Folsom Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
Telephone: (415) 642-6022
E-mail: mark@fntg.org
Web address: www.fntg.org

Established in 2000, FNTG is a network of funders that incorporates a global analysis into their grantmaking strategies. The primary purpose of the network is to facilitate an understanding among funders of the im-pacts of trade and macroeconomic policy on the issues the foundations seek to address. To this end, FNTG hosts educational briefings, conference calls and dialogs, and arranges funder delegations to related events such as WTO and FTAA ministerial meetings and World Social Fora. Through information provided by FNTG and dialog among its members, grantmakers are able to consider strategic funding opportunities that influence the public policies on international trade and globalization that ultimately affect their other issues and priorities. In 2007, FNTG led a delegation of funders to the World Social Forum in Kenya and to the first US Social Forum in Atlanta.


Green For All (GFA)

Grant Amount: $25,000
Contact: Phaedra Ellis Lamkins, Executive Director

1611 Telegraph Ave #600
Oakland, CA 94612
Telephone: (510) 663-6500
E-mail: phaedra@greenforall.org
Web address: www.greenforall.org

Green for All (GFA) works in collaboration with the business, government, labor, and grassroots communities to create green and sustainable jobs programs for marginalized and low-income people by bringing together city agencies, non-profits, foundations and private builders. Good, green jobs alleviate poverty, strengthen the middle class and restore the environment in target geographies across the U.S.

Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ)

Grant Amount: $50,000
Contact: Kim Bobo, Executive Director

1020 West Bryn Mawr, 4th Floor
Chicago, IL 60660
Telephone: (773) 728-8400
Fax: (773) 728-8409
E-mail: info@nicwj.org
Web address: www.nicwj.org

IWJ was founded in 1996 to educate and organize the religious community about issues and campaigns to improve wages, benefits and working conditions for workers - especially those in low-wage jobs. Since its founding, the organization has become the leading national organization engaging the religious community on issues of workplace justice. It has helped thousands of workers secure contracts that raise wages and im-proved benefits and working conditions, and has helped secure several million dollars in back wages through its 14 workers' centers. Among the efforts supported by IWJ-affiliated labor-interfaith groups are living wage campaigns, the Poultry Justice Campaign, and Labor in the Pulpits, which brings labor representatives to churches on Labor Day weekend to speak on employment issues.


Jobs with Justice (JwJ)

Grant Amount: $50,000
Contact: Sarita Gupta, Executive Director

1325 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Suite 200
Washington, DC 20005
Telephone: (202) 393-1044
Fax: (202) 393-7408
E-mail: info@jwj.org
Web address: www.jwj.org

JwJ is a national campaign for economic justice, consisting of more than 40 local coalitions made up of labor, community, faith-based and student organizations. Formed in 1987, JwJ coordinates technical assistance for its local coalitions in cities throughout the U.S, helping them to develop their capacity and infrastructure. JwJ assists local coalitions to develop and carry out campaigns focusing on workplace justice issues such as living wages, and social justice issues, such as immigrant rights. In addition, JwJ works closely with community, labor, policy and other groups on efforts to promote alternatives to corporate-led globalization. In 2008, JwJ worked on 151 workplace campaigns affecting 272,700 workers.


Kentuckians for the Commonwealth (KFTC)

Grant Amount: $100,000
Contact: Burt Lauderdale, Executive Director

P.O. Box 1450
London, KY 40743
Telephone: (606) 878-2161
Fax: (606) 878-5714
E-mail: blauderdale@earthlink.net
Web address: www.kftc.org

KFTC is a chapter-based, multi-racial, low- and moderate-income citizens' organization committed to long-term social, political, environmental, and economic justice. Founded in 1981 by a group of 40 Kentucky residents, it now has over 3,600 members from 90 of Kentucky's 120 counties. Through direct-action com-munity organizing, it targets corporate and governmental institutions that perpetuate unjust social systems and the degradation of health and the environment in Kentucky. KFTC's victories include gaining a two-year extension of welfare benefits for recipients pursuing additional education prior to transitioning into the workforce, and halting the devastating mining practice of mountain-top removal on the state's highest moun-tain. It also recently helped increasing the state income tax threshold which took over 500,000 low-income individuals off of the tax rolls.


Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE)

Grant Amount: $100,000
Contact: Madeline Janis, Executive Director

464 Lucas Avenue, #202
Los Angeles, CA 90017
Telephone: (213) 977-9400
E-mail: info@laane.org
Web address: www.laane.org

LAANE was founded in 1993 to help end working poverty and improve the quality of life for working people in the Los Angeles area. It began by organizing a broad-based coalition to work for a living wage law in Los Angeles. It pioneered a strategy to negotiate legally binding community benefits agreements (CBAs) in which a developer commits to a set of benefits desired by the community (including affordable housing, local hiring and environmental mitigation) in exchange for public subsidies and community support. LAANE also provides technical assistance regarding accountable development to residents and community groups across the country. Since implementing the strategy, 11 CBAs have been approved and the City of Los Angeles now negotiates community benefits standards with developers as a matter of course.


Miami Workers Center (MWC)

Grant Amount: $40,000
Contact: Gihan Perera, Executive Director

6127 NW 7th Avenue
Miami, FL 33127
Telephone: (305) 759-8717
Fax: (305) 759-8718
E-mail: info@theworkerscenter.org
Web address: www.miamiworkerscenter.org

MWC was founded in 1999 to empower low income workers and communities of color to advocate for better public policies on their own behalf. MWC's goal is to serve as an umbrella organization to provide organizing skills, political education, technical assistance and campaign strategy development to its constituent groups. These groups, made up of local residents from all racial backgrounds, will have a shared analysis and theory of change as a result of MWC's leadership development and political educa-tion programs, and will take action locally in their neighborhoods. MWC's work with multi-racial constituencies is particularly important because racial and ethnic tensions are a powerful and divisive force in Florida.


Mujeres Unidas y Activas (MUA)

Grant Amount: $30,000
Contact: Andrea Lee, Co-Director

3543 18th Street, #23
San Francisco, CA 94110
Telephone: (415) 621-8140, ext. 302
E-mail: andrea@mujeresunidas.net
Web address: www.mujeresunidas.net

MUA is an organization with a dual mission of personal transformation and building community power among Latina immigrants. Through group support and political education, MUA members are able to make links between their own personal issues and the broader social, economic and political systems. Through trainings on job skills and workers rights, MUA creates the conditions that enable its members to leave behind domestic violence and find work situations that will support them and their children. MUA's leadership and economic development trainings have graduated 375 women. Established in 1989 as a project of another organization, MUA obtained its 501(c)(3) status in December 2005. MUA recently launched a statewide household workers coalition working to pass legislation in the state of California to ensure overtime pay and protections for in-home childcare workers. The legislation passed the state Assembly and Senate but was vetoed by the governor.


New Mexico Environmental Law Center (NMELC)

Grant Amount: $40,000
Contact: Doug Meikeljohn, Executive Director

1405 Luisa Street, Suite 5
Santa Fe, NM 87505
Telephone: (505) 989-9022
E-mail: dmeikeljohn@nmelc.org
Web address: www.nmenvirolaw.org

NMELC is a nonprofit law firm dedicated to working with grassroots organizations that represent low-income communities on environmental justice issues in the state. It was formed in 1987 and works with organizations and grassroots groups that are fighting environmental injustice. NMELC also fights gov-ernmental decisions that allow pollution, destruction of environmental and cultural resources and nega-tive impacts human health. Recent victories have resulted in stringent water and air pollution require-ments at a chemical plant, the cancellation of open burning permits at the Los Alamos national laboratory, a ban on uranium mining and processing in Navajo Indian country, and the return of sacred lands to the Picuris Pueblo.

Oakland Rising (OR)

Grant Amount: $40,000
Contact: Esperanza Tervalon-Daumont, Executive Director

310 8th Street #309
Oakland, CA 94607
Tel: (510) 238-8758 Fax: (510) 834-8926
E-mail: info@oaklandrising.org
Web: http://www.oaklandrising.org

Oakland Rising is a coalition of six community-based organizations in the City of Oakland that is building power by aligning the programmatic work of their organizations, coordinating their voter work and developing shared infrastructure like trainings. In their first coordinated voter engagement endeavor, OR groups waged a four week "No on Proposition 98" campaign in over 60 precincts, making over 14,700 voter contacts and identifying close to 6700 "No" votes. Proposition 98 would have rendered all rent control tenant protection ordinances illegal in the State of California. Alameda County as a whole registered a 71% "No" vote, compared to precincts where Oakland Rising worked which delivered a 75% "No" vote.

Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (OVEC)

Grant Amount: $40,000
Contact: Janet Keating, Co-Director

P.O. Box 6753
Huntingon, WV 25773-6753
Telephone: (304) 522-0246
E-mail: ohvec@ohvec.org
Web address: www.ohvec.org

The Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (OVEC) works to ensure environmental justice in the coalfield communities of Appalachia. Active since 1987, OVEC has recently focused media widespread attention on mountaintop removal mining. OVEC has partnered with 13 groups in a regional alliance to devise a broad collaborative strategy to end mountaintop removal mining. The strategy includes base building, raising pub-lic awareness through the media, state and national campaigns, and promoting economic alternatives for a just transition away from a coal-based economy.


Partnership for Working Families (PWF)

Grant Amount: $50,000
Contact: Leslie Moody, Executive Director

2525 W. Alameda Ave.
Denver, CO 80219
Telephone: (303) 727-8086
E-mail: lmoody@communitybenefits.org
Web address: www.communitybenefits.org

The PWF is an organization formed in 2002 by the alliance of the Center on Policy Initiatives, the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy, the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy and Working Partnerships, USA. These four organizations – anchored in the major population centers of California – joined together to build an economic justice movement that calls on developers who receive taxpayer dollars in the form of public subsidies to provide measurable community benefits as defined by local residents in exchange for the subsidy. The group works with community-based organizations, labor unions, city councils, and the developers across the country to come up with plans that will positively affect the local community where a development is proposed.


Progressive Technology Project (PTP)

Grant Amount: $50,000
Contact: Arif Mamdani, Executive Director

2801 21st Avenue #132E
Minneapolis, MN 55407
Telephone: (612) 724-2600
Fax: (612) 395-9153
E-mail: info@progressivetech.org
Web Address: www.progressivetech.org

PTP is a collaboration of grassroots organizers, technology specialists, and funders seeking to build stronger grassroots organizations by helping them explore and implement the most effective information technologies, and then share their experiences so that the entire field benefits from the results. PTP also makes grants and provides capacity-building technical assistance to community-based groups. Since its creation in 1998, PTP has made over $1,000,000 in technology-related grants to community organizing groups and developed a multi-tiered technology training program for organizers.


Public Health Institute - Blue Green Alliance (PHI)

Grant Amount: $25,000
Contact: Les Leopold, Director

31 West 15th Street, Suite 601
New York, NY 10011
Telephone: (917) 606 0511 Fax: (212) 353-1203
Email: lesleopold@aol.com
Web Address: www.greenlabor.org

The Public Health Institute (PHI) is a nonprofit organization that focuses on education and strategy development to build alliances for social and economic justice. PHI believes that environmental, community and public health organizations want to work with labor, but need opportunities and guidance in forging those relationships. Because the labor movement can be difficult to navigate from the outside, PHI offers paths of entry and contacts. Project funds for PHI will go to support a unified blue-green alliance anchored by the United Steelworkers and the Sierra Club.


Research Institute for Social & Economic Policy (RISEP)

Grant Amount: $20,000
Contact: Emily Eisenhauer, Research Associate

c/o Center for Labor Research & Studies
Florida International University
Miami, FL 33199
Telephone: (305) 348-1515
Fax: (305) 348-2241
E-mail: Emily.Eisenhauer@fiu.edu
Web Address: www.risep-fiu.org

RISEP conducts empirical research that examines issues important to Florida's low- and moderate-income workers and their families. RISEP's data helps substantiate calls for policy and legislative change. RISEP formally started in 2004 and is the Florida affiliate of the Economic Analysis and Research Network (EARN). It is located within Florida international University's Center for Labor Research and Studies. RISEP has successfully completed and released a series of reports analyzing how Miami-Dade County can maximize community benefits in the upcoming renovation of the Orange Bowl and the expansion of the Jackson South Hospital. Recommendations include hiring local contractors to do the work, providing health insurance to all workers on the project, using minority and small contractors as much as possible, and using a "best value" rather than a "lowest bid" method of procurement on the project. These reports were commis-sioned by South Florida Jobs with Justice, another FACT grantee.


SAGE Council (SAGE)

Grant Amount: $30,000
Contact: Malcolm Bowekaty, Associate Director

510 3rd Street SW
Albuquerque NM, 87102
Telephone: (505) 260-4696, Fax: (505) 260-1689
E-mail: malcolm@sagecouncil.org
Web Address: www.sagecouncil.org

SAGE Council develops leadership, educates and organizes among New Mexico's Native American communities. It emphasizes voter engagement, advocacy and popular education. In the 2008 election cycle, SAGE conducted telephone banks, door to door canvassing and other outreach with a goal of reaching 11,000 voter contacts. The outcome indicated 50% voter turnout in the Laguna Pueblo and 75% in Acoma Pueblo. It was also invited to work in traditional pueblos that usually don’t push voter drives, which is an indication of SAGE’s standing in the Native American community. SAGE receives support from the Center for Civic Policy for research support and strategic campaign development.


Statewide Organizing for Community eMpowerment (SOCM)

Grant Amount: $40,000
Contact: Amelia Parker, Director

P.O. Box 479
Lake City, Tennessee 37769
Telephone: (865) 426-9455
Fax: (865) 426-9289
E-mail: amelia@socm.org
Web Address: www.socm.org

Formerly known as Save Our Comberland Mountains, SOCM is a member-driven, multi-issue community organization based primarily in rural Tennessee communities and small towns that was started in 1972. SOCM's overall mission is to work for economic, environmental, and social justice by developing multi-racial, grassroots, democratic community organizations to tackle critical issues at the local and state levels. It provides leadership in coalitions at the state, re-gional, and national levels to advance the movement for justice in the South and in the nation. Recent victories have won new water quality policies to stop mining in the most toxic coal seam in the state, limited expansion of mining on a mountaintop removal site and have advanced the issue of restoring voting rights to ex-felons. It is democratically run by its 2,500 members and emphasizes the growth and leadership development of members as much as winning issues.


Southern Echo

Grant Amount: $100,000
Contact: Leroy Johnson, Executive Director

P.O. Box 9306
Jackson, MS 39286
Telephone: (601) 278-2140
Fax: (601) 982-2636
E-mail: souecho@bellsouth.net
Web Address: www.southernecho.org

Southern Echo is a statewide, grassroots, leadership development, education, and training organization working to develop new grassroots leaders and organizers in African American communities in Mississippi and the surrounding region. It was created in 1990. Through a comprehensive training and technical assistance program Echo builds the capacity of African Americans to hold decision-makers accountable. Among the group’s accomplishments is winning the passage of the Mississippi Adequate Education Funding Program, which provides $650 million over five years to improve education facilities and equalize education spending per pupil statewide. Echo has conducted dozens of workshops to educate parents, students, educators and public officials about how education funding in Mississippi is designed. This has led to a more informed public that can hold the state officials accountable for their actions. In 2007, as a result of public action, the education funding program was fully funded for the first time since its adoption in 1997.


South Florida Jobs with Justice (SFL JwJ)

Grant Amount: $40,000
Contact: Alyce Gowdy Wright

1671 NW 17th Avenue
Miami, FL 33125
Telephone: (305) 324-1107
Fax: (305) 324-1119

SFL JwJ provides community organizing support to working poor people of color and immigrants and it is a coalition of labor, community, small business and student activists working towards a sustainable economy in the South Florida region. SFL JwJ emerged in 2002. It engages in local policy fights, commissions relevant research, organizes community members for direct action, provides popular education and fosters grassroots democracy. It is one of the few groups working to build solidarity between African Americans and immigrants in the region and is helping to convene and anchor a community benefits coalition which is fighting for residential control on local hiring on subsidized construction projects.


Strategic Concepts in Organizing & Policy Education (SCOPE)

Grant Amount: $100,000
Contact: Marilyn Johnson, Executive Director

1715 West Florence Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90047
Telephone: (323) 789-7920, Fax: (323) 789-7939
Web address: www.scopela.org

SCOPE seeks to reduce and eliminate structural barriers to social and economic opportunities for poor and disadvantaged communities. Since its founding in 1992, SCOPE has built models of civic participation, worked to develop strategic alliances between diverse communities, equipped poor communities with strategic research and analysis to understand the issues, and provided training to build collaboration at the local, regional, state, national and international levels. In 2008, over 500 residents worked with city officials in Los Angeles to explore the potential of “greening” the City’s existing buildings and helped shift the framework for the City’s retro-fit plans from a strictly cost-based view to one that considers environmental and workforce issues.



SouthWest Organizing Project (SWOP)

Grant Amount: $50,000
Contact: Robby Rodriquez, Director

211 10th Street, SW
Albuquerque, NM 87102
Telephone: (505) 247-8832
Fax: (505) 247-9972
E-mail: swop@swop.net
Web address: www.swop.net

SWOP is a multi-racial, multi-issue, statewide, grassroots organization established in 1981. SWOP seeks to empower the disenfranchised in New Mexico to realize racial and gender equality and social and economic justice. SWOP focuses on increasing citizen participation and building leadership skills in low-income communities (composed predominantly of people of color), so residents can participate in decision-making on issues affecting their lives, including environmental, community, and worker protection. As a member of a local coalition during the 2005 election cycle, SWOP helped to ensure the passage of a clean elections bill for the state of New Mexico. This ordinance provides public financing for candidates and will make it possible for low-income people of color to run in municipal elections in Albuquerque. Similar laws have passed in Arizona, Massachusetts and Maine. As a member of a coalition, SWOP recently helped ensure the passage of a municipal living wage ordinance in Albuquerque. With their allies, they continue to work toward increasing the minimum wage in the state as a whole.


Tax & Fiscal Policy Workgroup (TFP)

Grant Amount: $50,000
Contact: Juliet Ellis, Executive Director

c/o Urban Habitat
436 14th Street, Suite 1205
Oakland, CA 94612
Telephone: (510) 839-9512
E-mail: info@urbanhabitat.org

The tax and fiscal hub of the California Alliance is composed of grassroots organizations determined to improve the economic well-being and political capabilities of low income constituencies through a pragmatic tax reform agenda. The primary organizations of the working group include California ACORN, AGENDA, Urban Habitat and Working Partnerships USA. The coalition was formed in 2004. The workgroup has recently published an historical analysis of tax and fiscal policy in California which analyzes the evolution of the state's current tax and fiscal policies. The group has also completed a statewide mapping of the dominant worldview and values of both base and swing communities as the first step in developing a long-range plan to develop strategic initiatives for tax and fiscal policy reform.


Tennesseans for Fair Taxation (TFT)

Grant Amount: $30,000
Contact: Jim Sessions, Interim Director

116 Hotel Road
Knoxville, TN 37918-3224
Telephone: (865) 687-9600, Fax: (865) 597-4805
E-mail: jim@fairtaxation.org
Web Address: www.yourtax.org

TFT is a statewide coalition of member organizations and individuals working toward a fair and modern tax system in Tennessee that invests in the communities and in key public services in the state. Originally founded in 1984 as a loose coalition of groups working for passage of state tax reform, TFT has matured and taken on a broader set of tax and business budget issues that affect its membership and coalition partners. One of TFT’s most significant accomplishments is the establishment for the first time in state history, of a separate, lower tax rate on food compared with nonfood items. Other accomplishments include the defeat of the so-called Taxpayer Bill of Rights and resisting efforts to ban state income tax in the State Constitution.


Tennesse Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC)

Grant Amount: $30,000
Contact: Stephen Fotopulos, Executive Director

442 Metroplex Drive, Building D
Nashville, TN 37211
Telephone: (615) 833-0384
E-mail: stephen@tnimmigrant.org
Web Address: www.tnimmigrant.org

TIRRC empowers immigrants and refugees in Tennessee to develop a unified voice, defend their rights and create an atmosphere where they are viewed as positive contributors to the region. Established in 2001 it was a union of grassroots groups working to pass a law to allow applicants to receive a driver’s license without presenting a social security number. TIRRC has become one of the most diverse immigrant rights coalitions in the country with member groups representing Congolese, Egyptian, Haitian, Iranian, Iraqi, Kurdish, Laotian, Nigerian, Ethiopian, Somali, Pakistani and Vietnamese communities as well as a large number of Latino groups. In 2008, TIRRC not only successfully defeated all 65 anti-immigrant bills that reached the state legislature, but it also passed a proactive Racial Profiling Prevention Act that defines racial profiling in state law for the first time and requires local law enforcement agencies to adopt written policies to prevent racial profiling by 2010.


Urban Habitat

Grant Amount: $50,000
Contact: Juliet Ellis, Executive Director

436 14th Street, Suite 1205
Oakland, CA 94612
Telephone: (510) 839-9512
Fax: (510) 839-9610
E-mail: info@urbanhabitat.org
Web address: www.urbanhabitat.org

UH was created in 1989 as an intermediary organization working in partnership with low-income communi-ties and communities of color to advance regional equity in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. The Bay Area with its many municipalities and nine counties is economically bound together. UH founded the Social Equity Caucus (SEC) in 1997. Today the SEC has 75 members throughout the region who represent community development, labor, faith, youth, social justice, and environmental concerns all working together to improve communities. The membership includes organizations with differing strategies - grassroots groups, policy advocates, service organizations, academics, legal services and philanthropists.


Working Partnerships USA (WPUSA)

Grant Amount: $50,000
Contact: Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, Executive Director

2102 Almaden Road, Suite 107
San Jose, CA 95125
Telephone: (408) 269-7872
Fax: (408) 269-0183
E-mail: wpusa@atwork.org
Web address: www.wpusa.org

WPUSA was founded in 1995 to counter the growing economic disparity in California's Silicon Valley. Working Partnerships coordinates a broad-based coalition of community, labor, faith, housing, and environmental organizations and activists working to institute systemic economic reforms by developing and passing progressive public policies, organizing popular education trainings, and developing new models of employee organizations to raise wages and increase job security. The group's recent accomplishments include winning living wages for workers at San Jose International Airport and then expanding that victory to include employees at the rental car companies located at the airport. It also increased the local transit authority's commitment to improving bus service in the area, and released a study of the decline in job-based health coverage for U.S. workers. WPUSA's Childrens Healthcare Initiative, which provides for health coverage for all of the region's children has been replicated in several other municipalities and the model is being considered at the State level as well.